Hemicellulose, a polysaccharide is made up of xylose, arabinose (C5 sugars) galactose mannose and other sugars. It is the second most abundant component of plant derived biomass after cellulose. Hemicellulose can be hydrolyzed to C5 sugars (xylose and arabinose) and further those can be dehydrated into furfural, an industrially important chemical.
The typical reaction is shown above in Scheme A.

Xylose, a C5 sugar is an important platform chemical, which upon hydrogenation gives xylitol that finds application as a sweetener in food and pharmaceutical industries. Dehydration of xylose gives another key chemical, furfural that can act as building block for the synthesis of furfuryl alcohol, furanic acid, methyl furan and tetrahydrofuran (THF). Xylose can also undergo oxidation reaction to yield xylonic acid which has a multiple application.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,575,374 B1 describes the use of an ionic liquid acid catalyst for the hydrolysis of cellulose into reducing sugars and other degradation products. It uses the following ionic liquids:

But the process is a two step process.
Article titled, “Hydrolysis and Decomposition of Cellulose in Brönsted Acidic Ionic Liquids Under Mild Conditions” by Ananda S. Amarasekara in IND ENG CHEM RES 11/2009 reports that Cellulose dissolves in Brönsted acidic ionic liquids 1-(1-propylsulfonic)-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-(1-butylsulfonic)-3-methylimidazolium chloride up to 20 g/100 g ionic liquid by gentle mixing at room temperature.
Article titled, “Acid in ionic liquid: An efficient system for hydrolysis of lignocellulose” Changzhi Li, Qian Wang and Zongbao K. Zhao in Green Chem., 2008,10, 177-182 reports an efficient system for hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials with improved total reducing sugars (TRS) yield under mild conditions. TRS yields were up to 66%, 74%, 81% and 68% for hydrolysis of corn stalk, rice straw, pine wood and bagasse, respectively, in C4mimCl in the presence of 7 wt % hydrogen chloride at 100° C. under atmospheric pressure within 60 min. Different combinations between ionic liquids, such as C6mimCl, C4mimBr, AmimCl, C4mimHSO4, and SbmimHSO4, and acids, including sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, as well as maleic acid, afforded similar results albeit longer reaction time was generally required comparing with the combination of C4mimCl and hydrochloric acid.
But the prior art process provide poor yields of reducing sugars.
To overcome the drawbacks of the prior arts, it is critical to synthesize xylose from hemicellulose with high efficiency. The process provided should be advantageous with respect to industrial applicability and also result in higher selectivity and yields for preferred products.